Who can explain the way subtitles are handled by iTunes, Frontrow and Videodrive?

I am experiencing instable results using Videodrive regarding to subtitles. In iTunes sometimes subs are shown, sometimes they don't and I don't know the reason. In Frontrow, subs are never shown.

How I handle them until now:1. My downloaded .srt files are placed in the same folder as my video file.2. I rename the .srt file to the exact filename as my videofile e.g. avatar.mkv and avatar.srt3. I use different import methods (mostly 2 en 6) but the result stays the same.

I compared the cases where subs do show up with when they don't: I don't see the difference. It appears to me that the .srt are linked ore recognized differently than only by filename.

Any link to how iTunes and Frontrow handle subtitles is greatly appreciated.

**update**after using the "toggle subtitles" option in Videodrive the following message is shown:"10:15:56: Error while toggling subtitles of video The Bourne Ultimatum: The video does not contain compatible subtitles. Make sure the subtitles were present at the time the video was imported in iTunes and that the video was imported with VideoDrive import methods 2, 3 or 4."

I did use import method 2 and a valid .srt file was located in the same folder as - in this case - the .mp4 file.

Last edited by Allissey on Fri Jul 06, 2012 11:18 am; edited 1 time in total (Reason for editing : update)

When using import method 2, make sure you are dealing with AVI files and that the latest version of Perian is installed. That should be enough to "embed" the subtitles in the resulting video IF they have the exact same name.

To test this, simply play the original video in QuickTime 7. If you see subtitles there, everything is fine and they will appear in iTunes & Front Row after VideoDrive import.

To toggle subtitles, go to the Subtitle panel in VideoDrive.

If you use import methods 5-8, you are able to toggle subtitles right inside iTunes and iOS (using the dedicated subtitle button on those apps).

Thanks for the reply, though a bit late ;-)I already solved my problem by acquiring iSubtitle as well. This works fine for me though my workflow processing time increased since I have to attach the subtitles as well. Now I can toggle subs more easily in a native iTunes manner.

Now my workflow looks like this:- acquire my video file;- if necessary (70% of the times) convert to an iTunes friendly format (h264) using Videodrive (tedious!);- remove the imported files from iTunes;- process the converted video file in iSubtitle to add subs (finding the subs may be done from within iSubtitle)- import the video file with embedded subtitles

What does Videodrive do for me:- a user friendly interface with handbrake to convert video's form an xVid format to the h264 format- finding and adding metadata (artwork, descriptions) to my files- importing the rich video file (with subs and metadata) to iTunes

Based on your workflow, I suggest you try adding the subtitles without deleting the video from iTunes. Just try adding it with iSubtitle and you should be fine if you have not tried playing the video before.

If you did play the video before adding the subtitle, restarting iTunes should also do the trick.

Aroona wrote:Can you give an example for which video files you ended up using iSubtitle? We are currently working on VideoDrive 3, so maybe we can take your workflow into account.

I'll have to look into that, it's been a while... What do you mean by "an example"? It probably was an .avi (xvid) file.What I do remember:

- it occurs with .srt files;- renaming the .srt to exactly the same filename as the video file did not do the trick- after an unsuccessful import, toggling subtitles with the Videodrive menu option from within iTunes didn't do the trick either;- Videodrive succeeded to add subtitles in some cases (approximately 1 of 5 times). I haven't been able to find out what was the difference in the case it didn't work.

Based on your workflow, I suggest you try adding the subtitles without deleting the video from iTunes. Just try adding it with iSubtitle and you should be fine if you have not tried playing the video before.

If you did play the video before adding the subtitle, restarting iTunes should also do the trick.

I tried to add subs with iSubtitle without first removing the video files from iTunes. This would spare me a second import with Videodrive. Unfortunately, it did not succeed completely. In steps what did I do?

1. Open the videofile (the iTunes reference file, since I have the main file on an external hd);2. Add the subtitle with iSubtitle, checked from within iSubtitle, everything works fine (I had to change the .srt offset with a few seconds)3. in iTunes: the subtitles are shown (yes!) but the offset is not altered... so bad luck.4. Back to iSubtitle and checked again: here the offset change is saved.5. Deleted the videofile-by-reference from iTunes and imported again: everything works fine.

I also tried to add the subs to the master video file: this didn't do the trick at all.